PetroSun announced that Rio Hondo, the algae farm from Texas just began production. This plant is the first facility from PetroSun that will produce algae for biofuels. The algae farm has 1,100 acres of saltwater ponds, which the company estimates to produce at least 110 million pounds of biomass and 4.4 million gallons of algae oil per annum.
The plant will be further expanded to meet the demands of PetroSun’s ethanol and biodiesel refineries. They have plans even to build additional farms in the Gulf Coast if this one proves successful. Gordon LeBlanc Jr., CEO of PetroSun stated that the business model focused on demonstrating the feasibility of the algae-to-biofuels technology the company uses.
The current feedstocks used for converting to biodiesel and ethanol can be outperformed by microalgae, which also, unlike the rest, do not impact on the fresh water resources or the consumable food markets.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:58 am
A much better idea than burning food, which is what the corn-ethanol scam amounts to. This should work, unless corn-state politicians succeed in passing laws designed to cripple algae farming. We also need to persue cellulosic ethanol, to salvage biomass that is now going into landfills. No single “alternate” energy source is going to replace coal and petroleum, but some combination might, as long as we can keep the playing field from being warped by congresscritters in the pockets of the oil companies and agricorps.
April 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
This is the best oil technology we’re going to find (as if we need more oil technology…) if we want to free ourselves from foreign oil dependence. Corn is useless.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Love it! Just in time for the technology VW has proven with their hybrid diesel electric car, I am certain that Cummings and Cat are soon to produce high efficiency diesel/electric drive-trains for our long haul transports, but they better get off their proverbials, since MAN is a very hungry company too.
GM doesn’t have to go far to improve the VW technology, but still likes to play catch-up. This un-American approach has left them behind Toyota and is a disgrace.
Can the Algae yield hydrogen as well? fuel cell electric cars hold great promise too, except that the fuel is costly to produce.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Instead of building stagnant ponds to harvest algae to power cars, would it be more logical to dredge rivers so that we might travel by sailing boats?
April 12th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
It says microalgae don’t have an effect on fresh water resources…yes it does. Introducing nutrients to water that cause algae to bloom is eutrophication, and when all of that algae dies, it kind of takes all of the oxygen out of the water with it and kills anything that might be living in those ponds.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
It’s good to see more and more news being released on better and more natural ways to produce bio and ethanol fuels. There are much better technologies available, that as long as we, the human race continue to strive to see these cleaner technologies come into play we’ll succeed in soving our climate crisis. I agree with Adam and Steve that corn is a wasteful endeavor and creates more polution in its production with crude oils than what it was intended for. I listened to an episode of “Science Friday” on NPR News that interviewed a guy about using a special organisim to eat our trash and produce huge amounts of ethanol, while consuming very little crude oil in its production. Amazing! Yet very few people know of stuff like this. Good post.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:53 am
[...] grown with low impact on the environment, and now PetroSun of Texas has announced that their algae farms are already producing biomass for conversion into algae oil for use as fuel. PetroSun has farms [...]
April 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm
How do they know that it won’t have an impact on the local ecology? Foreign proteins and nutrients can still seep into the groundwater and contaminate the local water supply. Who knows what the extent of the damage would be, it could destroy the local algae that the fauna survives off and then it’s just a snowball effectt. I mean kudos for trying to find a greener source of fuel, but don’t package it as a low-impact source when you have no idea how it’s going to impact the ecology of the area.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
This, like many hundreds of other ideas are real nice. But how does it fit in a large scale energy economy? How many square kilometers or miles is needed to produce enough of this algae in order make a dent in our insatiable energy demands? And will this take away from food production? How friendly are these ponds to the local fauna, landscape, water tables and migratory birds? Is there any waste byproduct? If so where does it go? Does it require more than just salt water and sun? Or does is require mineral fertilizers?…
Trying not be too pessimistic here. The PetroSun site mentions that it produces 30 times more bio-fuel than traditional crops. There is a light at the end of the tunnel providing we can get answers for the above questions.
While writing this I came across another site that answers some questions and then adds some more: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4213775.html
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
how bout drillin some more oil…
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I watched a show on something similar to this where the algae was encapsulated in a greenhouse and it was being grown in plastic curtains. The people on the show said that they could produce enough fuel for the entire U.S. in the space of only 1/4 the land mass of Texas! Thats incredible if its true, where can I buy that stock at?!
May 14th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
The latest research, utilizing the most recent technology, indicates that each acre of commercial algae for biodiesel production could produce anywhere from 5,000-20,000 gallons of biodiesel per year. Now whether that is a b100 blend absent of any traditional petrodiesel cutting or if it is a blended concoction, I do not know. However, algae does lend itself to the greatest amount of oil production in comparison to all other types of “green” sources
May 19th, 2008 at 12:21 am
I think it will bring a revolution in biofuels sector ..
Its a good step ..